The present invention relates to suitcases with wheels to assist in transporting the suitcase. More specifically, the present invention relates to a suitcase that has rollers mounted on the back of the suitcase to assist in pulling it up a flight of stairs. The suitcase also has a braking mechanism to hold the rollers and, thus, the case in place if stopped on the stairs.
Suitcases are available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Traditionally, suitcases have been provided with a single carrying handle to allow the user to lift the suitcase and carry it from place to place. Recently, suitcases have been designed with rollers on the bottom of the suitcase. Rollers permit the suitcase to be rolled across a ground surface such as the floor of an airport terminal or a passenger aisle of an aircraft. These suitcases also have a handle secured to the case that can be telescopically extended to permit the user to steer the rolling suitcase in the direction desired. While these types of rolling suitcases are extremely well suited to be rolled across a flat floor, they are very difficult to maneuver over a set of steps. It is not uncommon for a traveler to encounter a situation where there is no elevator or escalator available and a set of stairs needs to be traversed. Typically, in that situation, the owner of the suitcase has to lift the suitcase up and over each step as the back of the suitcase rubs against the steps making it difficult to engage the wheels. This also leads to a jerking motion as the suitcase hops from stair to stair. The typical rolling suitcase is not well suited or moving luggage up and down a flight of stairs. The prior art has shown the inclusion of skids on the back of the suitcase panel to ease the suitcase sliding up the stairs. However, these skids are typically not as frictionless as they need to be, wear down with use and the user has to bear a lot of the weight in dragging the suitcase up a flight of stairs.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,575,361 to Chou discloses a wheeled suitcase. Chou's suitcase places the rollers on the bottom of the suitcase so the suitcase can be easily wheeled over a flat surface. However, the placement of these wheels will not aid an owner in carrying their suitcase up a flight of stairs. The wheels are located as such so they cannot engage two consecutive steps at the same time and thus offer no assistance in dragging the suitcase up a flight of stairs.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,041,900 to Sadow et al. discloses a towable article of luggage. Sadow's improvement places wheels not only on the bottom of the luggage but on the main front face of the luggage. Such wheel placement stabilizes the luggage by placing the widest surface to the luggage closest to the ground and it allows more luggage to be stacked on top of each other. However, again, the placement of the wheels offer no assistance when dragging the luggage up a flight of stairs. The wheels are small caster types wheels and do not offer a continuous surface to traverse multiple stairs at once.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,019 to Van Hooreweder et al. discloses a brake system for a luggage case. This invention has a ground engaging arm that pivotally moves beneath the luggage to stop its forward movement. The arm pivots out from under the luggage and actually lifts the luggage wheels off the ground to stop the luggage from moving. However, this method of stopping a piece of luggage would be completely ineffective in stopping a suitcase perched between two steps, because there would be no surface for the arm to engage with and lifting the suitcase off the steps would increase the strain on the user.